


Unstoppable Force Meets Unmovable Object

by Rockingham



Series: The Space Between Us [1]
Category: Choices: High School Story: Class Act (Visual Novel)
Genre: Burns, Child Abuse, F/F, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2019-06-01
Packaged: 2020-04-06 06:43:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19057306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rockingham/pseuds/Rockingham
Summary: Skye deals with the aftermath of Brian going off to college. A mess up at the annual dinner causes a particularly hard conversation between her and Bailey.





	Unstoppable Force Meets Unmovable Object

Skye slips out of the theatre room undetected between takes of the scene Rory was trying to direct. Ajay had recently graduated and Rory was taking over for a bit while the new director got settled in. Skye had been in the middle of adjusting the lights when pain crept up her arm and sizzled into her skin until she couldn’t take it anymore. 

Skye tugs the sleeve of her solid black sweatshirt to cover the bandage wrapped around her wrist and hand. The horrible pain only seemed to intensify as Skye made a sharp turn and ducked into the girl’s bathroom. Skye looks around cautiously to make sure she’s alone before dropping her bag on the counter and rolling up her sleeve to show the white sterile bandage, the underlying skin hurts as she takes a breath before going to remove the old bandage. It feels like every movement causes a shock of pain to run up her arm. 

The marks underneath are ugly shades of pinks and reds, blistering against her much fairer skin. The burn needed to be cleaned three times a day to prevent infection and cleaning the burn was more painful than anything Skye had experienced. It was one of the only things that could bring tears to her eyes every time without fail.

The burn was still fresh, and it caused her to take a breath and bite her lip before leaning moving her hand into the stream of water from the facet. The water immediately causing a flare of pain to her hand. 

She wouldn’t even have the burn if it wasn’t for the stupid diner her parents dragged her to every year. This year had been particularly bad. It was the first year Brian was away at college so all eyes had been on her. Every action, every sentence, every sip of water was tracked by the vultures her parents called friends. One of her father’s long time partners had brought his son to the venue. His weird, awkward, son who reminded Skye of Brian from time to time with the way he spoke and how important he tried to make himself sound. 

Skye honestly didn’t have a read on the kid. The only thing she really knew about him was that he was the same age as her and that he liked photography. His photos were always dark and while Skye could appreciate a little darkness, his photos always boarded on sociopathic. 

At the end of the dinner is a waltz. The second the music cued up the boy strode up to Skye and asked her to dance. Skye had, against her better judgement, declined in the most formal and polite way she could think of. He frowned and walked away and Skye thought that was the end of it. 

She knew it wasn’t the moment her father walked over at the end of the dinner, grabbed her wrist, and pulled her to the car with her mother following close behind. Once the car was on the highway he let loose.

He screamed about how the father pulled funding for a project he was working on. He yelled about how Skye was selfish and rude and how his project was ruined because of her. He didn’t stop until they pulled into the garage. The dead silence before he unlocked the doors was more frightening than him screaming at her.

“Dear, can you make me a cup of coffee?” Roger asks his wife before he gets out of the car. Skye watched her mother leap at the request, she’d never admit it but Skye knew the fear of her father was something her mother and her had in common. “Office, now.”

Her father’s office was the birthplace of nightmares. Whenever her and Brian got into a huge amount of trouble her father would direct them to his office where God only knows what awaited them. Skye moved stiffly as her father started towards the kitchen for his coffee. 

Mr. Crandall’s office was like something out of a magazine. The desk was an expensive dark mahogany. His desktop along was one of the most expensive set ups Skye had ever seen sat in perfect condition with various files and books neatly lined up on the desk. The bookshelf lined with classic books he never read. Swarovski crystal figurines decorate the room, offering a deceiving sparkle in the dark room. 

Her father steps through the door with his steaming cup of coffee, regarding her for a second, a startlingly calm expression on his face.

“Do you know how much money you cost me tonight?” 

Skye knows better than to answer.

“You cost me an entire project. Sean pulled all his funding, so now my project can’t happen. You cost this family a lot of money.” Roger snarled, “Do you know what my father used to do to me if I came up short?”

Skye shakes her head.

“He used to tell me to put my hand out.” 

Skye hesitates a second too long and her father reaches out, grabbing her wrist in a tight locked grip. Skye barely has a change to yelp about the pain before the entire cup of coffee her father has in his other hand is poured against her skin. The hot liquid  scalds across her hand causing a much louder scream to pass through her lips.

The dark red color and blistering skin causes her mother to give her a disgusted look when her father walks out of the office and orders the coffee to be cleaned up. Her hand was scalded clear across her palm wrapping around the back of her hand and simmering past her knuckles. 

Skye spends the rest of the night googling burn treatment and running her hand under cold water. It’s a second-degree burn and she’s lucky she can find clean sterile bandages in Brian’s bathroom from his high school football days. She got to spend her Saturday afterward going through the local drugstore for non stick bandages and enough Tylenol to knock out a horse. Sunday was spent locked in her room far away from her parents.

Cleaning the wound was painful and Skye had been hitting Tylenol for some relief. Her hand still hurts as she pats the burn dry and goes to rewrap it. Counting hours in her head to figure out when she can take another dose of Tylenol. 

She’s pulling her sleeve back down when the bathroom door opens and she sees her girlfriend walk in.

“There you are!” Bailey smiled as Skye tries to subtly hide her bandaged hand in the kangaroo pocket of her hoodie. “You disappeared, I wanted to make sure you were okay. You’ve been pretty quiet.”

“I’m always quiet, that’s my thing.”

Bailey shakes her head and steps forward. Her hands wrap around Skye’s wrists and Skye feels her heart rate pick up when Bailey pulls her closer. Bailey leans forward to place a sweet kiss on Skye’s nose, offering her a bright smile.

“You sure your not sulking about the dinner thing?” Bailey asks with a concerned voice, “I know you were pretty stressed out about it on Friday.”

Skye had been very vocal about how she wasn’t looking forward to the dinner that Friday. Bailey had tried to cheer the poor redhead up the entire day and had even texted Skye on Saturday to ask how it went. Skye hadn’t answered so it was normal that Bailey had been her shadow all day. Bailey gives her a calm smile as her hands start moving down to properly takes Skye’s hands. The second her hand tried to give a reassuring squeeze to her hands, Skye flinches back hard. The lingering sting of the wash gets ten times worse. Skye hears the yelp that leaves her own lips as she pulls her injured had away from Bailey hard. 

Bailey startles at the sound, it takes her a moment to register what had happened before her eyes widen and she moves closer to Skye again.

“Are you hurt?”

Skye doesn’t want to talk about this, she also doesn’t want to have the conversation she knows she bound to have with Bailey right now. She picks up her backpack with her good hand and starts out the bathroom without another word. After a moment she hears Bailey’s hurried footsteps chasing after her and  Skye takes a sharp turn towards the main entrance. 

“Skye, wait!” Bailey reaches out, grabbing the back of Skye’s sweatshirt to try to get her to slow down. Skye stops when she feels the tug, causing Bailey to almost crash into her.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Skye doesn’t turn to Bailey, hoping her clear bad mood would cause the other girl to maybe let it go, but almost three years of dating should have taught Skye better.

“Are you okay?” Bailey asks a bit hesitantly. She loosened her hand on Skye’s sweatshirt, “Did something happen?”

Skye lets out a sigh, “I  _ really _ don’t want to talk about it.”

She feels Bailey pull her hand away from Skye’s sweatshirt. 

“...It was your parents again, wasn’t it?” Bailey’s voice is quiet. Bailey had seen how far the Crandalls’ abuse could go. Most of the time it was just screaming. There were maybe a handful in incidents where it got more serious. A slap from her mother on two different occasions. Various bruises from being grabbed. This was by far the worst incident so far. “If it is them, you have to tell someone.”

“No, I don’t.”

“But Skye!” Bailey’s voice gets louder, “They’re hurting you. That’s not okay, they can’t get away with that.”

“I don’t need you to tell me it’s not okay.” Skye turns to the other girl. Bailey holds her gaze for a moment, calculating her next words.

“Then why are you letting them get away with it? If you tell someone-”

“If I tell someone, It will get worse.” Skye cuts her off, an annoyed look quickly crossing her face. “You don’t get it.”

“I get that my girlfriend is hurt and she’s not letting anyone help.” 

“I don’t need anyone’s help!” Skye yelled, catching Bailey completely off guard, “I can handle this myself.”

Skye turns and starts walking away, Bailey stands in the hallway completely dumbfounded. Skye hurries out of the school and down the street wanting to put space between her and everything else. 

The issue was, she didn’t want to stay there and she certainly didn’t want to go home. The greenhouse reminded her of stolen kisses with Bailey, and the theatre room was crowded. Skye sighs and she turns to the last sanctuary she had. She takes a few familiar turns down the street to the beach. She liked going to the beach in the evening when the sun wasn’t up and people weren’t crowding the place.

Maybe the beach wasn’t what Skye liked most about this place. She loved watching the ocean. It was a constant reminder of when she conquered her fear of water. That feeling of being so far out that no one could touch her. So far out that her mother or father couldn’t hurt her anymore. 

The salty air is an unusually calming thing. Skye feels her phone vibrate in her pocket and immediately feels regret for yelling at her girlfriend earlier. The dull ache of her hand was a small reminder at the constant nuisance that had been testing at her nerves all day. Bailey had caught her at a bad time and Skye, true to her last name it appears, had lashed out. She runs a hand through her hair.

She didn’t deserve someone as good as Bailey.

Bailey certainly didn’t deserve to be weight down with Skye’s baggage. Constantly worrying about her and going out of her way for her. 

Skye takes her phone out of her pocket and looks over to see that Bailey had sent her a text.

**Bailey** : Are you okay?

**Bailey** : I’m sorry I pushed, but I’m worried about you.

**Bailey** : Skye?

Skye feels like she really doesn’t deserve this girl. Skye stares at her phone not knowing what to say. It was getting late and she knew that she had to be home for dinner. 

**Skye** : I’m okay

A pretty obvious lie.

**Skye** : I’m figuring it out.

Skye shoves the phone back in her pocket and turns go start walking back to her living hell. She starts dragging her feet the closer she gets to the Crandall mansion. When she walks up the house is pretty dark. As soon as she walks through the door she kicks off her books and flips on the light. The house is silent and Skye walks through trying to see a trace of her parents anywhere. There’s a note hastily written and resting on the counter.

_ Skye, _

_ Your father and I are going to be away for a few weeks while we try to salvage his project. Don’t mess anything else up when we’re gone, you’ve ruined enough. _

How nice of them to leave a note this time. Skye crumpled the paper and tossed it into the trash before scavenging the house. Of course her parents didn’t stock anything before leaving, the pantry was pretty empty as well as the fridge. It wasn’t really unusual since her parents used a grocery service to do all their shopping and got groceries delivered daily so they got the “best” ingredience they could get. They probably suspended it for their trip. Meaning Skye was completely on her own.

Skye doesn’t particularly feel like cooking for herself tonight. She doesn’t feel like a late trip to the grocery store for anything either. That felt like a problem for future Skye. Skye feels her phone vibrate again in her pocket. 

**Bailey** : Do you want to come over?

**Bailey** : We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.

**Bailey** : Are you still mad?

Skye was never mad at her and the question makes her feel guiltier about losing her cool earlier.

**Skye** : I'm sorry

**Skye** : I'm not mad.

Skye thinks for a moment before typing out her next message.

**Skye** : do you want to come over here? 

**Bailey** : is that okay?

**Skye** : yeah, my parents aren't home.

**Bailey** : Okay!

**Bailey** : I'm bringing dinner!

Skye knows she  doesn't deserve this girl.

After about twenty minutes of loitering around the house Skye nears a tentative knock on the door. Skye tries not to seem too eager when she opens the door, seeing a sheepish looking Bailey on the other side.

"Hey"

"Hey" Bailey flashes a shy smile. "I brought food."

Skye offers the other girl a small smile of her own as she gestured for her to come inside.

"I made ravioli for the diner, I was playing around with fillings so there are four different kinds." Bailey explained as she rested the box she had with her on the table and pulled out a few containers filled with food. 

"I'm sorry I yelled at you earlier." Skye offered at Bailey looked up at her. 

“I’m still worried about you.” Bailey offered after a moment, “And I… don’t understand.”

There was a lot about the situation that Bailey couldn’t have understood, mostly because her and Skye never sat down to have this conversation. Usually Skye would tell her that it was a one-time thing because her mom was angry or because Brian was pissed and took it out on her. 

“I didn’t want you to worry. Look… This isn’t as simple as you made it sound earlier. If I told someone, what would happen? CPS gets involved and does an investigation? My parents will have one hundred reasons and thousands of dollars to make the issue go away. I’ve seen them do it before with much bigger issues. I just have to live with this for another year, then I graduate and can leave.”

“You’re parents could really cover up the fact that they hurt you?”

“You have no idea what they’ve made disappear.” Skye sighed as she goes to fetch plates from the cabinets. “This doesn’t happen all the time, only when I really messed up. I just have to stay out of their sight now that Brian’s gone off to college.”

“I don’t like this.” Bailey says as she shakes her head, “It’s risky.”

“It would only get worse if I tried to turn them in.” Skye tried to reason as her girlfriend stared at her with concerned brown eyes. “Imagine how much they’d hate me if I caused that much trouble.”

Skye can tell Bailey still doesn’t like the plan, but she doesn’t argue any more as they sit down to eat. The two eat in silence for a few minutes before Bailey looks up at her with a suddenly determined look.

“We’re setting ground rules.” Bailey says as she focus her attention on Skye who was, admittedly, eating like a half-starved animal. Getting burned kinda ruins your appetite for a few days and the absence of her parents had made her feel much more comfortable.

“Okay?”

“You have to tell me whenever you get hurt.” Bailey announces with authority, “I don’t care if it’s small or big, you have to come tell me.”

“Okay,”

“And you have to promise me that if things get really bad, that you’ll consider telling someone.” 

Skye hesitates for a second, “I already told you I wasn’t going to do that.”

“Yeah, but if something really bad happens, if you end up in a hospital or something you can’t keep it a secret.” Bailey pushed as she leaned forward a little. “This time seemed pretty bad.”

Bailey gestures to Skye’s hand and Skye half-heartedly raises it at the event that caused the burn comes back to her head.

“It wasn’t so bad.” Skye tried to play it off. “It’s a burn.”

“From what?”

“My dad threw coffee at me because I embarrassed him at dinner and caused some big shot to pull funding for a project he was working on.” Skye explained quickly before dropping her injured hand into her lap so it was out of sight.

“That’s kinda bad.” Bailey points out, “How do you know you shouldn’t go to the hospital for that.”

Skye doesn’t think ‘I googled it’ is a good excuse.

“Let me take a look.” Bailey offered, “Just to make sure you don’t need a doctor.”

“It’s kinda ugly.” Skye muttered remembering her mother’s disgusted looks whenever she noticed Skye changing the bandage. 

“Most burns are, but they heal.” Bailey stood up and offered Skye her hand, “Besides, I’ve seen a lot of burns from helping my parents at the diner. I can tell if it’s really bad.”

Skye sighs and takes Bailey’s hand with her good hand before leading the other girl to the bathroom where Skye kept some of the gauze stashed. Skye tries not to make much noise as she unwraps the burn unwillingly. Bailey watches her face, wincing in sympathy every time Skye’s face shows any discomfort. 

Once the burn is open to the air Bailey examines her hand.

“You’re wrapping it too tight.” Bailey offers as she examines Skye’s palm, “the blisters are breaking against the bandage. That’s not good.”

Bailey looks through the cabinet to pull a particular soap for Skye to clean out the burn. Skye hesitates, knowing it will hurt, before forcing herself to the sink to clean the burn as instructed.

“Here, let me show you how to wrap it.” Bailey offers once the burn is dried and read to be wrapped. Bailey guides Skye’s injured hand closer to her as she wraps it properly, the two stand in silence, the only sounds Bailey registers are the changes in Skye’s breath each time the bandage touches a particularly sore area.

“You don’t have to help.” Skye points out, Bailey can hear the pain in her voice. Once Bailey’s finished bandaging the wound she moves her hands to either side of Skye’s neck, surprising her for a second and causing her to look at her.

“I love you.” Bailey murmured in the space between them, watching the confused look cross through Skye’s eyes. Bailey was the only person who ever said it, and every time she was met with a deer in the headlights look from Skye as she processed the words much like she did the first time. Bailey had teased her a bit when it took her an hour to say ‘I love you’ back to her because she was so confused after Bailey’s confession. “So I’m always going to help you.”

Skye doesn’t say anything, but Bailey sees the final walls of Skye’s defence break before Skye leans forward and presses her lips to Bailey’s in a light kiss that Bailey’s quick to return. When she pulls away Skye turns to bury her face in Bailey’s neck, wrapping her arms around the other girl’s waist tightly.

Bailey wrapped her arms around Skye and held her close, she let out a breath of relief and runs a hand through Skye’s hair. The high pitched whimper that leaves Skye’s throat causes Bailey to move her hand to rub at her back. The pain that Skye had been holding back all day came to the surface. Bailey just holds her tight for the next few minutes, only pulling away to fetch the Tylenol bottle before making sure Skye was settled for the night before the two settled on the couch for the night.

Skye’s phone would wake them up at six for school the next morning.

And maybe Bailey would get a few looks for raiding Skye’s closet, but the little smile Skye flashes her that morning was more than worth it.


End file.
